After inquiries from The Courier and fewer than five days before the election, Pope County Election Commission Chairman Dale Brown changed this year's procedures on transporting paper ballots after polls close on election night.

Previously, all paper ballots were delivered to a secure location at the courthouse after the unofficial count.

Brown announced to poll workers Thursday that scanned ballots would be left in locked metal boxes at polling places until picked up -- which, in some cases, would not be until two days after the election.

Once marked, ballots are run through a scanner, which automatically tabulates the votes and stores the results on an electronic memory card. The paper ballots then slip into a locked metal box underneath the scanner. The county will use 26 boxes and scanners Tuesday.

In case of a recount, only the paper ballots are counted. Questions about ballot security leave the results open to legal challenges by candidates.

"Security is probably the most important consideration" in an election, said Tim Humphries, general counsel for Secretary of State Charlie Daniels.

After he was questioned by The Courier, Brown said the memory cards would be taken back to the courthouse after the polls close. He said the boxes, which are about 3 feet high and 18 inches wide, are too big to fit inside poll workers' vehicles.

"You can't get them in the trunk of a car -- it's almost impossible to get all that stuff in," he said. Brown said he didn't know when the boxes would be picked up, but it would be "no later than Thursday" after the election.

When asked if the county's other two election commissioners expressed misgivings about leaving the ballots at polling places, Brown said no. "I'd say we're all pretty much in agreement," he said.

However, one election commissioner disagreed.

"I voiced my concern on Wednesday and again on Thursday at [the Election Commission] meeting," Election Commission Secretary Portia Short said. "I think the ballots should be brought back [to the courthouse] that night."

Short also said poll workers were concerned about the legality of Brown's decision. While state law is clear on the disposition of hand-counted ballots (which must be immediately delivered to the county election commission), it's murky on what to do with electronically scanned ones.

"The law is not really specific about what happens to ballots that are electronically scanned," Humphries said. "There's nothing in the code to deal with it." He said the State Board of Election Commissioners would have final say on questions about election procedures. Calls to Susie Stormes, State Board of Election Commissioners director, were not returned by press time.

Brown previously said leaving the ballots at polling places for up to two days after the election would not comprise the ballots' security. "They're all in locked, heavy-duty boxes on rollers," he said. "The polling places are just as safe as the courthouse. We can't keep people from breaking in if they want to."

After The Courier's interview with Humphries on Friday, Brown later confirmed with a a reporter at the Pope County Courthouse the plan for transporting the boxes changed. "We're taking them back to a secure area Tuesday night," Brown said. "Not at the courthouse, but all in one place." Brown declined to say where the ballots would be taken.